Pete wrote:
>
> For myself (and others?) the list is a big message board. Scan the
> Inbox and view the topics of interest and trash the others. Perhaps for
> many purposes a MessBoard would be better?
> Though some do have trouble with the web, I believe the interface, if
> properly designed, would require fewer bytes.
> For example... A web page displaying all topics less than
> [user input] days old. Checkboxes next to each displayed topic. Check
> the desired ones and hit enter. A script could then generate a streamlined
> download... Rather than 30-40 e-mails a day, whether of interest or not.
Hi Pete;
Seems like a good idea on the surface, but it just can't work to replace
a discussion list like this. (IMHO) I think even the digest has a negative
influence on vitality.
The OT stuff seems to be necessary to generate new threads. And sometimes
users reply to one thread with a totally unrelated subject line so the
checkboxes beside the topic wouldn't necessarily work.
Perhaps if in addition to, or instead of the topic, you were to put up the
first line of the message we would have a better idea of what was in the body.
But then, how do you find the first line of the message ?
Sometimes there is a salutation, sometimes not.
Sometimes the message folows the quoted material, sometimes it leads it.
Sometimes the quoted material is indicated every line, sometimes just the
first and last line.
And talking about OT material and what one might decide to read,
I read your message and I'm pretty sure you will read anything that
looks like a response, and that's the way it pretty well has to be
because the OT stuff influences the way we read the OnTopic stuff.
Some have long ago probably decided to hit the Trash button whenever they
see my name, based solely on some OT stuff that ticked them off. <G>
I find very few messages hit MY Trash without at least a skim.
Excepting SPAM. '-)
- Clarence Verge
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